Yeah - New York Times, Madison County is a garden spot. Especially when the springtime flowers poke their beautiful heads up through the abandoned buildings and baby birds take flight over downtown East St. Louis.

So 52 of 102 counties rank in the top half nationally. Sounds about right.

VanillaMan, you are aware that East St. Louis is in St. Clair County right? In addition, Madison & St. Clair are on neither the top or bottom 25, so I am not sure why you mentioned it. Frankly, I am not surprised to see 3 St. Louis metro counties in the top 25 & none in the bottom 25, even if there are some struggling communities.

I don’t know that there are too many surprises. The top 25 contains a lot of suburban counties, not just in Chicagoland, but also Marshall, Tazewell, Menard, Henry, Woodford, Monroe, Washington, Clinton, Piatt, Boone, Ogle along with a few central cities McLean, Sangamon, & Champaign. By my count only 3 non-metropolitan made the top 25: Adams (Quincy), Effingham, & JoDaviess (Galena).

By comparison, the bottom 25 is heavily weighted toward non-metropolitan counties with the exceptions being Vermillon (Danville), Peoria, Alexander (technically considered part of the Cape Girardeau metro area), & Kankakee.

47th Ward-
I would think that 21st means 21st from the bottom not the other way around. Kankakee has had its struggles but the worst is yet to come. The RTA removing their special taxing set-ups is worse for government there than any employer moving out of the County.

Where the heck you from Iliana? Henry county is hardly a suburb to anything, and its a stretch to consider Washington and Clinton as suburban to STL. Neither is Ogle suburban to Rockford. Have you been to any of those places?

Also, Peoria is not in the bottom 25, and Cape Girardeau has minimal influence on Alexander county.

Many of the better counties have major universities, which helps with median income, unemployment and education.

Glad you’re not around anymore, 47th Ward! Lots of positive things are happening in Kankakee County and in fact, employers are making major investments in the county and we have the fastest job growth in the state. The idea that it would be better to live in Jasper, Coles or Effingham County than in Kankakee is ridiculous. It just proves that you can make a list based off any statistics you want. What about property values, cost of living or proximity to major metropolitan areas? What about arts and entertainment, an area we are seeing a lot of growth in? Bogus.

k3: I agree that most lists are distorted; but I’ve spent a little time in Kankakee and in those other counties. I haven’t checked; but how does the crime rate there compare to Jasper, Coles or Effingham?

Countywide, the crime rate would likely be average (I can’t find stats on overall crime). City of Kankakee is higher, but the crime rate is still the lowest it’s been since the 70’s. And I agree the list mirrors the County Health rankings and we do have underserved communities and that’s a challenge. But I would argue the resources we have for people in poverty are far greater than any rural county to our south, but that’s not part of the survey. And I will concede we need to do better and collaborating to lift families out of poverty.

Iliana-I live in Union county. Although one passes through Alexander county to get to Cape, no one, in either Missouri or Illinois, consider it a part of “metro” Cape Girardeau. To the post, I grew up in Kankakee county, if southern Illinois is considered the worst places to live, I respectfully disagree.

It appears that Washington County is not part of Greater St. Louis, but Clinton County is. Henry County is official part of the Quad Cities metro area. Ogle County is not part of suburban Rockford, so I erred there. Alexander County is officially part of the Cape Girardeau metro area.

Don’t forget Oak Park, Orland Park, Barrington, Palatine, Schaumburg, and a bunch of other great places. And don’t leave out Beverly, Sauganash or a ton of great city neighborhoods. There’s lots right with Cook County.

Washington and Clinton Counties are hardly suburban. Maybe you could consider New Baden, which straddles the Clinton/St. Clair County line as exurban. Aside from that, purely rural. Carlyle and Nashville are both about 50 miles from St. Louis, but there are a lot of farm fields in between.